Chapter 7 – The PowerPuff's Guilt

The city of Townsville…

"Coloring! Coloring!" Bubbles sang blissfully as she sat on a park bench, scribbling carelessly a picture of herself and her sisters. "Coloring is so much fun!" squealed Bubbles, a sweet little girl, with large blue eyes and blonde hair tied into two pigtails – and one of Townsville's superpower endowed protectors. Satisfied with her drawing, Bubbles hugged it tightly and flew through the air to show her sisters. Yes, I typed "flew". But Bubbles grew cold, and began shivering. Looking into the sky, she saw large masses of dark clouds were forming. "Oh, no! My drawing will get soaked!" she cried, quickly folding the paper away into her pocket. But a ruined drawing was the least of her worries –

SLAM

Bubbles had barely avoided the attacking tentacle; landing on her knees, she saw what looked like a giant-sized, purple octopus doll with a tiny hat on its head. "Mr. Octi?" Bubbles squeaked. Mr. Octi raised another of its eight tentacles for another attempt. Bubbles gasped, and hastily started running away as the tentacle came crashing down where she once stood. "Help!" she shouted, having completely forgotten she had powers. "Help – yipe!" Bubbles yelped, tripping over a loose tree root, and got her foot caught. She frantically tried to free herself, but the colossal octopus doll had already caught up to her. Bubbles closed her eyes and held her head, whimpering as Mr. Octi prepared to deliver the final strike.

"Hey, octopus! Back off from my sister with those tentacles!"

Bubbles opened her eyes, just as another little girl threw a powerful punch into the face of Mr. Octi, knocking the doll away a few yards. Bubble gasped in relief, "Buttercup!"

Buttercup looked much like her sister, only she had green eyes and black hair without pigtails. Also unlike Bubbles, Buttercup just seemed to emit an air of toughness and confidence that Bubbles lacked. "What the heck are you doing out here, Bubbles?!" Buttercup reproached as she easily freed her sister from the tree root. "Don't you know that all over the world that Heartless have been invading cities and towns?"

"Heartless?" Bubbles repeated confusedly. "What do you mean?"

Buttercup opened her mouth to answer, but Mr. Octi had gotten back up. "Oh, so you want some more, huh?" she smirked, waving her hand for it to come. "Bring it on!" Mr. Octi charged at the two girls, its multiple tentacles slamming into the ground, creating massive holes. Buttercup simply said, "Too easy." She narrowed her eyes, focusing her attack, and fired twin lasers from her eyes, completely incinerating the octopus doll.

"Whoo!" Bubbles cheered, hopping up and down and waving a pair of pom-pons she somehow produced. "Go, Buttercup! Go, Buttercup! It's your birthday! It's your birthday!"

"Cut it out, Bubbles, that isn't cool," Buttercup said, rolling her eyes.

Bubbles gasped, pointing behind Buttercup, "Look!" She turned her head and frowned. Emerging from the flaming remains of Mr. Octi was what seemed like a robot with multiple mechanical limps that once handled the doll's tentacles; within the robot's glass cockpit was (strangely enough) a helmet-clad monkey.

"Mojo Jojo!" both Bubbles and Buttercup exclaimed at the same time.

"Yes, it is I! Mojo Jojo!" the monkey said with odd declaration. "It was I, Mojo Jojo, who was controlling this robotic children's toy, which I, Mojo Jojo, have built!"

"What are you up to this time, Mojo?" Buttercup demanded.

"That is for me, Mojo Jojo, to know and for you to find out…which is never!" Mojo Jojo pressed a button, causing the robot he piloted to charge for the two PowerPuff Girls once again.

"Bring it on!" Buttercup grinned hungrily, flying high into the air. Bubbles watched in awe as Buttercup evade all of the attacks Mojo's robot threw at her and fought back with the occasional punch and kick. Her sisters have always just been so brave and confident, but she herself never was like that. Bubbles sighed sadly.

"Time to finish it up," Buttercup said as she reached behind her back, drawing out a Smash Ball. She dropped it down and bounced it a bit with her knees like a soccer ball, and finally shattered it with a swift kick. Feeling the power of the Smash Ball flowing through her body, Buttercup began spinning. Mojo Jojo watched on with a puzzled look when he should really be attacking her before she got the chance to complete her attack (I'm looking right at you stupid RPGs!). Buttercup had created a staggering green tornado that easily towered over even Mojo's tall robot. The Tornado Buttercup sucked in a screaming Mojo, completely ripping his robot into little greasy pieces of metal. The tornado died away, leaving only Buttercup with a smug look as she held up the defeated Mojo.

"Way to go, Buttercup!" Bubbles applauded gleefully.

"Eh, it's Mojo," Buttercup shrugged, floating back to the ground, dropping the knocked-out monkey. "He's always easy."

"But what about the time he tricked us into building his home, created evil monkeys, and began destroying Townsville by injecting himself with more Chemical X so that he'd grow into a giant monster that really reminded me of those Japanese movie monsters that were really guys in cheesy rubber suits?" Bubbles asked.

"That doesn't count," Buttercup said, grabbing Bubble's head, giving her a noogie, and released her. "Still, I can really use a challenge…"

"Heh! Heh! Heh! Well, how about from me?" Buttercup and Bubble's heads whipped upward as they saw Pete standing atop a metal jungle gym. He waved to them casually. "Hey there, kiddies!"

"Watch out, Bubbles!" Buttercup warned, standing between her sister and Pete. "That fat cat completely destroyed an entire stadium of people."

"What?" Bubbles gasped, covering her mouth. "All those…poor people…"

"Eh, it just came out that way," Pete shrugged callously. "Things just happen when you're carrying out some plans. Oh! And speaking of which." Pulling from behind his back, Pete heaved as he aimed his Dark Cannon for Buttercup. "Say cheese!"

"That's so lame!" Buttercup snapped as she easily dodged a shot from the Dark Cannon. Growling, Pete pulled the Cannon's trigger rapidly, but Buttercup avoided each arrow – she even made a small pirouette to annoy him, which did the trick. Growing frustrated, Pete turned his attention to the other PowerPuff Girl.

"NO!" Buttercup yelled as Bubbles stood rooted on the stop, too afraid to move. Pete pulled the trigger and the dark arrow headed dead for Bubbles –

But it hit Buttercup instead as she shoved her sister out of the way. "BUTTERCUP!" she screamed as the dark clouds in the sky finally began to rain. Bubble's eyes were blank as she stared unblinkingly at the dead-like statue of her sister.

"Heh! Heh! Heh!" Pete guffawed as he leaped down from the jungle gym and picked up Buttercup's statue. "One down!" He turned to the comatose Bubbles. "One to go."

Finally regaining her senses, Bubbles flew away at top speed from the cat-man that took her sister, unwilling to look back at her failure to help.